The Palm Beach Effect: How Glamour is Not So Quietly Replacing the White Box
- Ashley George
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
I spent a week in September walking through some of Palm Beach’s most enviable homes — the very ones I grew up staring at on childhood trips to visit my grandmother. We’d cruise down Ocean Drive, and I’d press my face to the car window trying to see past the hedges. I remember asking what the houses cost; my grandmother, very serious, guessed “at least a million dollars.” (Land alone on that same stretch just traded hands for $25 million — so she was… adorably off.)
Those early trips felt like Main Street Disney to a kid: bankers’ offices, lunch at Testa’s (an island institution), and one unforgettable afternoon at my grandmother’s employer’s house. She had a secret door in the staircase that opened to a costume closet, plus 1980s touch lamps hidden in plants — I thought it was futuristic magic. And it was the first time I’d ever seen wallpaper, bedding, and curtains all in one wild print. Mrs. Ridgeway, if you’re reading this: you made an impression.
From leftovers to “white box aquariums” — and back again
The mid-century flavor that lingered on the island into the ’80s eventually got washed out. Somewhere along the way, the Island crowd — who had always wintered here — pulled things toward something Cape Cod-adjacent: bland seagrass, “safe” staging, and, eventually, West Palm’s wave of big white box houses that felt more aquarium than home (hat tip to builder Sam Fisch for some of the most glassy of the glass boxes).
The irony? Palm Beach was never supposed to be a New England vacation clone — Henry Flagler didn’t build the Breakers so people could pretend they were in Southhampton.
But today? The glamour is back. Not as a replica, but as a whip-lash return to warmth, story, and serious money being spent with personality.
Color: Sophisticated corals, clay pinks, lush palm greens, warm plaster neutrals. Not bubblegum. Not icy mint.
Texture: Plaster lighting, sculptural walls, soft curves, hand-worked finishes.
Palm Beach prints: Cabana stripes and bold palms reimagined with restraint.
Restaurants echo it: Dinner at Swifty’s felt like walking into a mood board — palm-frond chandeliers, playful pinks and greens, polished but comfortable.
Why it matters (even if you’re not buying on the island)
Palm Beach has quietly become a proving ground for national taste. Architectural Digest calls it exactly that. Designers who show at the Kips Bay Palm Beach Show House see their palettes and shapes ripple through residential projects everywhere. Trend forecasters tie this back to fashion — what shows up on the Paris and Milan runways filters into textiles, finishes, and, eventually, the homes we covet.
That means if you’re seeing warm corals, palm greens, and Spanish tile play out here in New Orleans — especially in our mid-century prep work — it isn’t nostalgia. It’s reading the current early and applying it in a way that fits our historic bones.
A wink (and a date to save)
We’re putting this to work right now on a mid-century gem in the lake neighborhoods — and we’re celebrating with a little throwback party that Mrs. Ridgeway herself would approve of.
📅 October 22nd, 6–8 PM 🍹 Mid-century cocktail or costume attire 🍸 Flamingo Fog punch, bingo by the pool, music, and a brief talk on mid-century architecture
If you love design — or have a friend hunting for a $700k+ mid-century home — this is the night to come play. Keep an eye on next week’s newsletter for the full invite.
Next Wednesday we’ll dig into where these ideas really start — spoiler: fashion runways, textile mills, and finish designers — and how what walks in Paris ends up on walls in Palm Beach and beyond.
Celebrated for her next-level creative approach to real estate, Elisa Cool Murphy is an award-winning, top-performing real estate broker in New Orleans and the founder of Cool Murphy Real Estate.
Contact Her -
email: cool@coolmurphy.com
Facebook: @homeinneworleans
IG: @coolmurphynola
YouTube: @coolmurphynola
phone: 504-321-3194
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